Movies and Video Games — Why They Don’t Mix

Recently the difference between the silver screen and the numerous thirty-inchers hooked up to gaming platforms, dotting bedroom’s across the globe has been merged. But has it been abused?

Adam Elkus wrote a piece that I recently discovered, titled Game Over, Curtains Close, which gives an interesting analysis toward why video-game adapted movies have always been worse than their predecessor. He lets in the common argument from disappointed gaming fans: that the cast of the movie, its director, and its plot pails to compare to the superiority of the original game.

But this is contradicted entirely with the case of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which was written, directed, produced, and scored by the exact same people who made the original game. Consequently, the movie was a complete flop — going straight to DVD. 

So what really is the difference between video games and movies that is so large, yet undiscoverable? Elkus argues that because video games are active and movies are not, watching a video-game based movie would ultimately be a direct contrast to watching your friend play video games over his back for two hours. 

Although I do believe this is true, I think there’s more to the argument than that. In truth, a movie may be different morally than a video game, the audience is a big factor. Movie-goers are simply different people with different tastes than gamers, and that carries out to the theaters. And no matter how original the remake may be, it simply will fail because no one watching it will enjoy. 

And because a movie is the opposite of a game, a gaming movie will never succeed in the box office. Simple as that.

The Public, Basic Foreign Policy, and an Action Film

After a long string of politics, I took cover by way of the local AMC, but in the end, I couldn’t escape what continues to surround me as well as everyone else — politics. 

No, this time it wasn’t Wolf Blitzer or a fiery Fox anchor, but a dose of something rare – an American citizen who just let it slip. It was actually the most exciting part of the movie, (Traitor), and the film hadn’t started yet.

After a quite loud tribute to the soldiers overseas wearing the red, white, and blue via song by Kid Rock (somehow with NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. thrown into it) a sole man seated across from me booed. 

It wasn’t a scream, but it had meaning to it. Received almost exactly to the contrary by a enraged man in the row behind, the disagreement turned into a full-fledged political debate — all we needed now was Ralph Nater to show up.

And then there was me. From the outer shell, the innocent thirteen year old sitting with a friend for the sole purpose of enjoying a movie. But then here I was — the partisan, sometimes non partisan political blogger who is regularly mistaken for someone decades older. And that person, the late twenties or early thirties political mojo would almost certainly jump in, maybe even throw in a little dose of Anderson Cooper while they were at it. But no, of course not. I’m a kid. So I sat down. 

Eventually the two men were calmed down by some security and the whole thing was over with, but the buzz in the movie theater was still alive. The previews rolled on and the movie started, which was conveniently centered around terrorism, hardly a theme that suited the previous argument. 

So I didn’t move a muscle. Why? Certainly a highly opinionated and politically immersed person like me would have a voice, and this was definitely a time to show it. But in the end, until I grow over 5’10, lose my braces and higher-pitched voice, I would look like your average kid, associated with anything your average stereotypical annoying thirteen-year old would be connected with. But connect me with a pen and paper, and its a different world.

Another reason by blogging is the new media.

My Favorite Chase of All Time

 

One of the faster cars here in Uruguay

OJ’s Bronco: That thing is MOVING!

OJ selling his car. “Well….its well broken in and has good mileage!”

Of all the chases that have ever taken place, which one has been the best, the most exciting, the most gripping? Was it the ski chase in Her Majesty’s Secret Service? Was an old chase? Perhaps the numerous ones in “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World?”  Was it a new chase? Perhaps something in a Die Hard — before Bruce Willis lost his hair. Was it something in the sky? On the road? In the snow? On foot? Maybe when my two dogs chasing around my house? But no, this chase is probably something you don’t have in mind, but if your old enough, you probably remember. Not calling anyone old here. Yes, this chase is an instant classic, it got my adrenaline pumping even as I watched it on Youtube.

 

            So in honor of the extremely fast cars here in Uruguay, I present to you…the greatest chase ever, by perhaps the greatest driver ever: starring OJ Simpson’s Ford Bronco vs. the police. This chase reminded me deeply of the Tour De France, where people line up on the side of the road and run next to the bikes. Well, it was sort of the same case here. I don’t know what kind of Jungle Juice OJ put in his Bronco, but let me say, my pet rock wasn’t impressed. (Maybe Olive oil?) Its not OJ’s fault – he was really hitting the gas, but with all his money, maybe he could put more than 10 horsepower in his golf cart. I bet the entire exertive board of Ford Motors was screaming: “FLOOR IT, JUICE!” That day must have been disappointing for them to see OJ’s Bronco and the Ford police cars all doing an exciting 20 miles per hour. But aside from the part when the chase witnesses (all 500 of them) shouted: “Don’t squeeze the juice!” my favorite part of the chase was when (if you look closely) the people on the side of the freeways were starting snail races when the cars came up next to them. Man, that thing was suspenseful, and it will always win my heart for the best chase ever. Heck, they should make a movie about it and throw in Mr. T as OJ. That way he could ad a new dimension to the chase by periodically screaming “you can’t touch this FOOL” to the police.

 

Guest Movie Review

To my readers, 

Hey guys, I made a guest movie review of Wall-E on Involuntary Fury’s blog, though you might want to check it out. Here’s the link: http://blog.involuntaryfury.com

What Has Happened To Hollywood?

After sitting through all the superhero movies Marvel and Hollywood could throw at me, I was pondering the awful question: what has happened to the great Hollywood? It seems today that everything they make is the customary Disney G-Rated movie that will definitely include: 1 dead parent, 2 golden retrievers (or more), someone from either the disney channel shows Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, or the Raven Show, and finally one of the annoying Jonas Brothers to randomly do a solo during the credits. Either that or they will mass produce an string of animated Star Wars movies and then throw in a second Transformers without Megan Fox (because she asked for too much cash), with more annoying Shia Labeouf, and then toss in as much special effects that you’d think you were in a nightmare. The result? Sadly, with millions of 15 year old girls for Shia Labeouf and millions of tweenage disney cult members buying tickets, the makers of these movies (while sitting on a throne of cash) start a sequel — then a trilogy…. This is why movies today in every season but maybe Fall are just the reality of a bad dream. And now, the small population of film enthusiasts that appreciate good movies today is a dying breed. 

If only Hollywood could put aside their blood and gore ego and remember the masterpiece that they made almost 40 years ago in All the President’s Men. This was a movie that defied all the odds to me, it delivered an excellent plot, twists, suspense, it kept you guessing, and above all — there wasn’t a single shot fired. The plot was true (Nixon’s henchman’s infamous failed heist of the democratic headquarters) and even though you knew the ending, you still wanted to see more, because somehow even though you knew every single detail backwards and forwards, you were engaged 100% on the screen. You head was spinning through the full two and a half hours, and after so many years, here we are in 2008, still remembering this movie. Its a timeless, classic mystery, but its too action packed to be a classic or a mystery. Its a great action movie, but there wasn’t a single drop of blood. This movie deserves to be in its own category, and it goes to show you that even though today we have all the money and brains we want to spend on a cinema, we are still too egotistic and stubborn to produce a movie with a plot and sequence that we could 40 years ago. And because of this, I am saddened that I was not born yet into that past movie era of great minds, directors, actors, and above all…plots.